


A Hero's Journey

by goldenhand9107



Category: DCU, Krypton (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Not Beta Read, Season/Series 02, Seg & Adam go to Earth, Seg meets Clark, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26748682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenhand9107/pseuds/goldenhand9107
Summary: A quick escape leads Adam and Seg to be beamed onto modern day Earth rather than Krypton. Seg freaks out. Adam freaks out more.
Relationships: Seg-El & Adam Strange
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	A Hero's Journey

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place directly after the scene when they escape Lobo in season 2 episode 3; it’s basically a little side trip for Seg and Adam. This fic has a few other DC characters (more referenced than actually featured), the most important of which I’ve tagged. 
> 
> My major basis for the new character's personalities and overall set up for the world is a weird mix of Young Justice, Justice League 2001, Teen Titans, and my own liberties with the canon of the Krypton show. I think this fic is self-contained enough to understand without knowing those though––just think of the additional characters as OC if that helps.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys this one-shot. Cheers!

“Adam, we gotta go. We gotta go right NOW!” Seg yells, as the terrifying vision of Lobo crawls towards them on his hands.

“Yeah, I know!” Adam pulls out the zeta beam, fumbling with getting it calibrated. He activates it and the shield begins to build around them.

“Now, now!” Seg yells again. Lobo growls, and Adam flips a bird.

“So long bitch.” He taunts, before Seg and him are whisked away.

A moment later they crash onto the ground. Adam’s head spins, and he tries to focus his eyes on their surroundings. He didn’t have enough time to program their exact destination, instead relying on the automatic calibration to beam them to his most recent teleport. His vision clears and…Adam is sure he’s seeing things. Trash cans?

He slaps himself on the face, and slowly stands up. Seg is still sprawled out on his back, moaning from disorientation. The hard pavement he was dropped onto probably doesn’t help.

Wait, _pavement_?

Adam’s eyes widen and his head shoots around. Yes, those are indeed trash cans, sitting up against a clearly brick wall, right underneath an indisputable fire escape. He turns to his left and _shit._

They’re currently standing in the back alley of a neighborhood, midday. Adam sees people walk past, not noticing him or Seg conspicuously hunkered down in the corridor. Beyond the sidewalk he sees parallel parked cars on the side of a road, and across the street are tightly packed buildings with stone stairs leading up to doors. He sees trees in small plots of dirt on the sidewalk, and even watches with wide eyes as a woman walks by wearing a Yankees hat. New York City, his time.

 _Earth_.

"Oh god." He whispers, eyes widening in shock. Thinking quickly, he whips out the zeta beam, and starts trying to program in a new destination. However, he's only met with a soft sizzling noise and a quick flash of light when he activates it. He's still standing bewildered in the alleyway. The thing is clearly busted. 

_Crap._

“Oh no. Oh no no no no no no." He smacks the zeta beam once, but nothing happens. "No. No. This is not happening, this is _not_ happening right now. This–”. Adam is cut off by a groaning, and he’s suddenly reminded.

“Oh my god! I brought you here too! No! This is bad, this is really _really_ ** _really_ **bad.” He pockets the dead device, and starts pacing back and forth, shaking his hands as if to rid himself of his predicament, eyebrows furrowed from exasperation.

“Jeez, Adam, calm down.” Seg says, as he slowly lifts himself off the ground. He squints from the brightness, and walks over to put his hands on his friend’s shoulders, looking Adam in the eye.

“Everything’s fine. We’re here, we–” Seg interrupts himself, as he loses Adam’s eye contact and takes in their surroundings.

“Where are we?” He drops his arms, and spins around to look at the foreign buildings, objects, and especially the bright light from above. He holds his hand up to shield himself, and looks back at Adam, who is rapidly tapping his foot. He has his hands on his hips and looks so high strung Seg think’s he’ll snap.

“Adam. _Where_ are we?” Seg repeats. Adam closes his eyes at his friends insistence. He inhales.

“Earth. We’re on Earth. In my time.” He says quickly. Seg’s face turns from urgency to shock.

“What.” Seg drops his hand, no longer thinking about the bright light, and turns around. He spots the opening in the alley and runs out.

“No, Seg, wait!” Adam calls from behind, following him out to the sidewalk. Seg pants heavily as he takes in his scenery. Obnoxiously yellow transports zoom past him, along with similar looking vehicles that are an abundance of colors. Strange plants with bright green leaves and skinny bases extend on either side of him, shielding him from the bright light in the sky; Seg now realizes that said sky is a brilliant blue. There are dozens of people brushing by him, one even colliding with him, and calling “Watch it!” as he hurries off. He sees some small creature attached to a rope walking in front of one of the humans, and backs up as it looks up at him and makes a noise.

“Oh god, this is really happening. Not good at all. Okay okay okay okay. Okay. Focus Adam! What the _hell_ do I do now?” Adam says, mostly to himself. He looks around and grabs a newspaper from a stand, checking the date. “Okay, six months. It’s been six months since I left….how is that helpful?”

Seg hasn’t acknowledged him yet, still focused on the environment around him. Across the street he sees one human moving faster than the rest, seemingly on some kind of barbaric hoverboard that uses wheels. And when another yellow transport speeds past him, only then does Seg notice the sounds.

Everything is so _loud_. Vehicles aggressively blaring, people talking over each other, and Seg thinks he can hear some type of rhythmic noises in the distance. It’s all _so much_ , he clamps his hand over his ears.

“Hey, whoa, buddy, you good?” Adam questions. Seg doesn’t respond, focused on shutting out all the sounds. “Okay, we’re gonna…we’re not gonna stand here. That’s stupid.” He glances up at their surroundings. “I know where we are, okay, we’re gonna…we’re gonna go somewhere, somewhere quiet, where we can talk about this, okay Seg?” The Kryptonian still doesn’t respond, eyes clenched shut as he keeps his hands over his ears.

Adam pulls his elbow and gets him walking, dodging and weaving others on the sidewalk. He thinks he knows the way to his old apartment from where they are, about a ten minute walk. Hopefully, Seg doesn’t have a breakdown by then.

About five minutes later, Adam has gotten them off the busy street and onto a residential road, which is much quieter compared to before. Seg drops his hands and takes a few deep breaths. He opens his eyes and glares at the back of Adam’s head as they walk.

“Adam, would you like to tell me WHY we are on your planet, 200 years in the future?” Seg demands angrily. Adam whips his head around, and looks apologetic.

“Look man, I don’t know. The zeta must’ve just misfired and sent us back to where I originally used it. And yes I already tried it again, it didn't work.” He replies, clearly exasperated.

“Misfired? _Misfired_? Adam, this isn’t a misfire, this is a complete and total failure! I am on an alien planet, light years from my home, centuries in the future. This is not ‘just a misfire’, this is a bloody disaster.” Seg sneers, using air quotes around Adam’s words.

“I get it man, okay, I screwed up! I’m taking us to a place where we can hopefully get all this sorted out, alright?” He reveals. Seg, still seething with anger, nods.

They reach a building, where Adam punches in a code into a keypad, and opens a door. They go up a few flights of stairs, before reaching a worn door with the number 78 on it. Adam bends down and pulls the trim off the bottom of the wall to reveal a cubby with a key in it. He unlocks the door and leads Seg inside.

The area is about the size expected from a cheap New York apartment. Most of the space is taken up by an L desk, with gobs of computer equipment and other technology perched on it. Wires scatter the floor around the desk. To Seg’s right, there is a door going out to a balcony looking over the street. To his left, past a strange area with a metal box, sink and cabinets, Seg can see a hallway with two doors.

Adam makes a beeline to the desk on the far wall and sits in a creaky, spinning chair. He taps on some keys, and seemingly gets working on something. Seg looks around the apartment; it’s very cramped, the only saving feature being the floor to ceiling glass door leading to the balcony. He wanders slightly, looking around at a small couch and table, before heading into what he realizes is a kitchen. Albeit a highly ancient one, by the looks of the technology. No food replicator in sight.

“Alright, I just sent a communication signal to someone who should be able to help us figure out what went wrong with the zeta.” Seg is opening cabinets as Adam speaks, barely listening.

“Why are all your cabinets empty?” Seg questions. Adam seems confused.

“They’re not. Look, that’s not important, we hopefully will have a solution within a few hours. Do you think you can last here that long?” Adam asks. Seg continues to ignore him, poking around the kitchen more.

“You know, for the future, this kitchen is quite prehistoric.” He retorts. Adam rolls his eyes.

“In terms of widely commercialized technology, Earth is a little behind the galactic norm, now will you answer me?” He says quickly. Seg sighs.

“Yeah. That’s fine. As long as we can get back to Krypton as soon as possible.” Seg reiterates. Adam collapses back into his chair, a sigh escaping his throat. Seg senses that he’s just as unhappy with the situation as he is. The Kryptonian surrenders, and decides to try and lighten his friends mood.

“So Earth man. Tell me about your home.” Adam looks at him confused.

“You really wanna know about this?” He gestures to the room. Seg shakes his head.

“Oh god, not this dump. I meant your planet.” He replies. Adam perks up slightly.

“Uh well, this is New York City, in America, which is one of like a few hundred countries on the planet. There are eight million of us in this city, and about 7.7 billion worldwide.”

“7.7 _billion_?” Seg exclaims. “There’s barely even a billion on Krypton now. Impressive.”

“Multiply like rabbits.” Adam remarks. Seg gives him a look. “Never mind.” He utters.

“Well, the calendar year is 2019, but this planet is about 4.5 billion years old, which I know is significantly younger than Krypton.” Seg nods. “I mean, what else do you wanna know man?” Adam asks.

Seg squints as he thinks. “What kind of jobs can people have? Is it just a few like the guilds on Krypton?” He questions.

“Nah, there’s nothing that organized here. People kinda do whatever they want to do. Scientists, artists, historians, businessmen, writers, y’know. I even know of people who exclusively work on the internet.”

“Internet?” Seg asks.

“Oh. That is a much longer conversation.” Adam laughs. Seg glances around the room to try and get ideas.

“What’s with all this setup?” He wonders, and walks over to get a closer look.

“This is my HQ–headquarters. It’s where I based my operation before I left, and how I’m in contact with the other heroes. I sent a signal out to my…friend, Alanna. She and her dad built the zeta beam, so I figured if anyone knows what’s wrong with it, she will.” He explains.

“Well I sure hope so.” Seg retorts, wandering around the apartment again.

“You know, what completely escapes me is how you Earthlings are able to constantly deal with that ridiculously bright light in the sky. Is that the sun your planet orbits?” Seg walks over to the balcony windows, and points as he talks.

“Yep, good ole’ sun keeping….” Adam trails off, as a realization dawns on him.

Kryptonian plus yellow sun equals godlike abilities.

“Oh. Ohhhhh no. That’s uh. That’s. Yeah. Hm.” He scratches the back of his head, hoping Seg doesn’t read too much into his reaction.

“What? What is it?” The Kryptonian whirls around. Adam pauses for a minute.

“Nothing.” He chirps, and spins his chair away from Seg, pretending to be working on the keyboard.

“Adam.” He hears footsteps stalk towards him, and Seg spins his chair back around to face him.

“What.” That wasn’t a question but a demand. Adam practically flinches, and thinks about the best way to do this. Show, don’t tell.

He glances around his apartment. What is he willing to sacrifice to show Seg he has superpowers? He spots a rusty crowbar sitting in the corner by the door. Perfect. Why he even has a crowbar in his apartment completely escapes him, but that’s just more indication that it doesn’t matter if Seg bends it a bit.

“One sec.” He dips under Seg’s arm as he stands up, going over to retrieve said item. He hands it to a confused Seg and crosses his arms.

“This is gonna sound weird, but you just gotta roll with it okay?” Adam insists. Seg, looking as lost as ever, nods.

“Okay. Bend it.” He instructs. Seg’s eyes go wide, as his eyebrows shoot up into his forehead.

“What? I can’t bend this?” He articulates.

“Seg. Trust me on this. Bend. It.” Adam tries to convey his seriousness, but Seg still seems skeptical.

“You’re trying to make me look like an ass, I swear–”

“Seg. I’m not. Just shut the hell up and bend it.” He makes a purpose of not saying ‘try’ in effort to convince Seg he’s not joking.

Dubiously, Seg looks down at the crowbar. He tightens his grip and tries to pull his hands towards each other. When nothing budges, he scoffs.

“I don’t know what game–”

“Seg I swear to god, I will punch you in your _very_ punchable face. Now please. One more time.” Adam voices, fed up with his friend’s doubt.

Seg rolls his eyes, but relents. He copies his actions from before, and, to his (but not Adam’s) surprise, the bar creaks as it bends into a curve. Seg stumbles backwards, turning over the bar in his hands. He squints, and Adam barks out a laugh.

“Damn that’s still so cool.” He comments.

Seg holds the bar up. “Explain this. Now.” He demands.

Adam, smug as ever, sits back down in his spinning chair. “Kryptonian physiology 101 my friend. If anyone from your planet or any planet in the system is exposed to a yellow sun, BOOM,” he makes an effect with his hands. “Superpowers”.

Seg looks as if he’s slowly trying to process everything, dead staring at the curved metal in his hands. Adam thinks for a moment.

“How strong do you think you need to be to pull that bar apart _laterally_?” He makes the motion. Seg is snapped from his daze.

“Easily much stronger than to just bend it.” Seg responds. Adam gestures with his head as if to say ‘go on’.

Seg blinks rapidly. He quickly unbends the bar, unbothered by that fact, as he remains focused on Adam’s challenge. He holds the crowbar at each end and tugs outwards. Adam expects there to be some sort of resistance, but the bar snaps down the middle as if Seg were pulling silly putty. His friend’s eyes go wide as saucers.

“Not just strong.” Adam leans forward. “ _Very_ strong.” Seg blinks once, then twice, gears turning over in his head. At a sudden voice, he practically jumps through the roof, letting the two pieces of metal clatter onto the ground.

“ADAM STRANGE.” A female voice bellows. Seg scans the room but sees no extra person in the apartment. It is only when he looks at Adam’s desk does he notice a small, see-through blue figure standing with arms crossed. It takes a moment for Seg’s brain to catch up, but he finally realizes that the figure is a miniature, archaic hologram standing on a circular platform. He’s seen this type of technology; dozens of mini projectors angled in 360 degrees to create a 3D hologram. The figure was no more than a foot tall.

“What. The. HELL. Are you doing in 2019. ON EARTH??” The woman screams. Seg watches Adam flinch at every word. “Last time you talked to us, you _promised_ to restore the timeline. Can’t really fix the past if you’re in the _present_ , now can you?” She scolds, and Seg stifles a laugh.

“Yes Alanna, I’m well aware, but _this_ whole situation is actually YOUR techs fault. The zeta brought us here instead of Krypton, and I don’t know why, and I need you to fix it.” Adam crosses his arms as he kicks his chair back.

“You are. _So rich_. Humans! Can they _ever_ fix their own problems? No! Always have to come crawling back to the more technologically advanced species…” Alanna keeps rambling, as Seg watches her hologram walk in place, presumably tracking her movements in her own location. She sits down at a chair and starts typing.

“Okay genius, if I’m going to help you I need you to send me scans of the zeta in its current state, so I can figure out what’s wrong.” She pauses, lost in thought for a moment.

“Did you say ‘us’?” She looks up at Adam. The man looks worried as he tugs on his collar in guilt. He spins his chair and looks at Seg, gesturing with his head for him to come into view. Seg steps over, and Alanna’s face goes into shock.

“Wait….is that–”

“YES it’s Seg, and I know I screwed up by bringing him here and possibly endangering the timeline in a multitude of different ways, and I know I should never have used the zeta unless absolutely necessary, I really don’t need you to lecture me right now, just _please_ help me fix it so we can get him back home?” Adam blathers on for a moment.

The woman glares at him, before looking back at Seg.

“Does he know?”

“About what?”

“About the superpowers?”

“Ah yes, we were in the middle of a show and tell session of super strength when you so rudely interrupted.” Adam replies scornfully. Alanna looks back and forth between them for a beat.

“Does he know about the others?”

“ ** _OTHERS_**?!” Seg yells.

“Oh my god.” Adam says quietly, putting his head in his hands. Alanna glowers at him with contempt.

“Apparently not.” She slowly retorts.

“That’s it. I’m calling Clark.” He turns away from the holo, and begins typing on the keyboard.

Alanna scoffs.

“Can you even do that? And even if you could, are you sure it’s a good idea?” She raises an eyebrow at him.

“ _Who_ is Clark?” Seg interjects angrily, fed up with being sidelined for this conversation.

Adam spins around in his chair and presses his lips into a line. He speaks hesitantly. “I’m calling your grandson. Superman.”

* * *

“………grandson……….my…” Seg stumbles backwards as his mind races to catch up with the new information. His actual _legitimate_ ** _grandson_** is out there somewhere, and Adam is planning on calling him up as if it’s no big deal.

“Alanna, I could kind of use some advice on this whole,” he gestures to Seg “y’know.” He replies to her query. “And it’s not like some grandfather-grandson bonding time would be unwelcome. Right Seg?” He turns to his friend at the question; the Kryptonian looks as white as a sheet, stood stick straight, still processing.

“Seg?” Adam asks again. When he continues to get no answer, he sighs. He stands and grabs Seg by the arm, leading him over to the couch.

“Sit. Before you start drooling on my floor.” Adam flicks him in the forehead, and the other man is shaken from his stunned state. He makes dazed eye contact with Adam as he slowly lowers himself to sit, grasping onto the armrest as if it were a life buoy.

Adam saunters back to his desk and begins setting up a private line to Clark’s transmission signal. The left side of his head heats up as if someone is staring, and he turns to see Alanna shooting daggers his way. Adam rolls his eyes.

“He’ll be fine. Just needs a minute.” He defends. The Rannian scoffs.

“Don’t give me that. Look, I’m gonna finish uploading the specs of the zeta to you and then get in contact with Clark. Can you open a channel so the broadcast can reach your sector?” He asks, masking his intimidation; Alanna has not stopped staring.

“Fine. But I still think you’re worse than a _koprec-fera_.” She remarks, resuming her work on the keyboard.

“Yeah, I have no idea what that means and I don’t think I want to know.” Adam shakes his head as he speaks, eyes not leaving the screen.

They tap on their keyboards in silence for a moment, Adam sneaking a glance or two her way. He turns to look at Seg who is leaned over with his head in his hands. Adam sighs from pity.

“Hey. Dude.” Seg looks up at Adam’s call. “The remote on the table there. Press the 'on' button and you’ll be able to look through some channels on the television.” He says, pointing to the TV mounted on the wall opposite of Seg. The Kryptonian furrows his brow and Adam insists.

“You’ll figure it out. Just…occupy yourself man. You’re pitiful.” He jokes, but Seg doesn’t smile; his expression remains blank as he grabs the remote from the table and inspects it.

Adam turns back towards his screen. The zeta scans have finished sending; now he just needs to establish contact with Clark. Piece of cake.

Hopefully.

“So where’s Sardath?” Adam asks, after ten minutes or so of quiet, save for the voices coming from the TV as Seg flips through channels.

“In another system collecting spore samples for a new project. Won’t be back for a few more rotations.”

“Can you contact him?” He asks.

She shakes her head. “They filter incoming signals for security reasons. I can only contact him if it’s an emergency.” She seems sorrowful, and he wonders how long it’s been. He opens his mouth to ask, but she cuts him off.

“Okay, I got your imaging and the circuit map. Where’s the software test?”

“Separate drive. It should finish verifying on your servers in a sec.” He responds, the sudden change in subject not going unnoticed. He decides not to point it out, and instead checks the status of his connection with the league.

“This is ridiculous, I tried Clark, and he didn’t answer so I tried Connor and he didn’t either. Then Dinah, Hal, Zatanna, even Diana, and she almost _always_ gets back to me. But none of them are picking up. I don’t know what the deal is.” He pushes himself away from his desk and crosses his arms in thought.

“Bruce?” She asks, and Adam shoots her a look that says ‘you’re joking, right?’.

“Well, you didn’t mention Arthur. Or J’onn.” Alanna points out.

“I know Arthur’s out of reach for a fact, he’s doing some special mission in the Trench or something and, well, J’onn….” He trails off. Alanna squints at him suspiciously.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t mention him.” He practically winces. Alanna groans.

“Please, swallow your pride and call him?” She insists. He sighs, and relents, opening a signal to J’onn’s communication transmitter. It resonates for a moment, before connecting to the channel.

“Hello? J’onn? It’s Adam. Wait, no no no! Don’t hang up! Please! Can I explain?” He yells into a standing mic on the desk, pressing his hand against a comm earpiece he put in when the call started.

“Yes I know, I know, I owe you like five at this point, just thirty seconds please, I promise, it’s important….Thank you!” He does a small fist pump in celebration.

“Okay so, quick question first, where is everyone? I tried calling like, half the league and they must be deliberately dodging my calls because _no one_ answered. That……oh……that was a joke……well then. Glad to know Bruce tattled on me about the incident in Coast City, that’s just great.” Adam hangs his head as Alanna stifles a laugh.

“Whatever, look, just.....could you tell Clark I have an emergency that would really benefit from his expertise. Please?? I’m kinda freaking out here, so minimum, ask if he could stop by Manhattan. I would _really_ appreciate it.” Adam asks, listening before nodding aggressively.

“Thank you so much J’onn, Jesus! I guess I owe you six now. Well I promise to– ” Adam cuts himself off, as the computer program running the connection closes, leaving Adam’s desktop display. Adam squints, and turns towards Alanna.

“He hung up on me.” He declares, defeatedly. Alanna stands, leaning forward on her desk.

“I don’t. Blame him.” She spits out bitterly. Adam waves her away with a nervous laugh, and the Rannian sits back down.

“Huhhh, well I don’t really have any other ideas if that doesn’t pan out…unless…” Adam brings himself back to his keyboard and quickly searches up a location for someone: honorary league member and resident Teen Titan Beast Boy.

“Yes! He’s in New York. Oh, how the heavens have been kind.” Adam praises, as he opens a desk drawer and fishes out an old cellphone, thinking to himself that this drawer is much emptier than he remembers it being.

Celebrating in his head that the number hasn’t been disconnected, he dials Gar. It rings and he taps on his desk anxiously.

“Hello?” A voice picks up on the other end.

“Gar! Holy crap man, you do NOT know how good it is to hear your voice.” He gasps out, standing up in a rush.

“Who is…wait Adam??”

“Yeah man! Long time!” He runs his hand through his hair.

“Dude, try three years! Where’ve you been? You sorta dropped off the face of the Earth, I haven't from you after you went on that archeology trip.”

Adam barks out a laugh. “Yeah, well, that’s cause I _literally_ dropped off the face of the planet.”

“…….what?”

“Never mind, it’s a long story, I was calling just cause……well…you and Connor are still close right?”

“Yeah, him Dick and I are all buds, but you know that. Why are you asking?” Gar questions.

“I kinda have a…uh, how do I put this. A Kryptonian issue? Development? And neither Clark or Connor are picking up so you were my next idea.” He says sheepishly.

“Oh well, the rest of the Titans are off world, I’m stuck on home turf duty. I don’t know about Clark though. What's the issue?”

Adam turns towards Seg as he talks, who is practically hypnotized by the nature channel.

“It’s more of a show, not tell thing. You’re in New York, right?”

“Upstate, yeah.” Gar confirms slowly. “Did you track me?”

“Great, could you come to my apartment? 39 West 21st street, I’m apartment 78. Code’s 0814.” He says, ignoring Gar’s question.

“Yeah I know it, you put _me_ down as a contact, and they called me when you didn’t pay three months rent.” Gar sounds annoyed.

“Oh sorry, I couldn’t think of anyone else.” He admits, practically hearing Gar roll his eyes from the other end of the phone.

“I can be there in an hour or two. Is everything good? You sound worked up.” He asks.

“Yeah yeah, it’s fine, just……a little unexpected I guess.” Adam responds, choosing his words.

“You’re being very sparse with the details, but hey, I get it. I’ll be there soon.” Gar sounds as if he’s packing up while he speaks.

“Lifesaver man. See you in an hour.” Adam hangs up the phone and takes a deep breath.

“Well, now that you’re done desperately pleading for help, I think I know why the zeta malfunctioned in the first place.” Alanna intercedes. “Pull up the 3D model scan.” She instructs.

“God, where the hell is my mousepad?” He complains mostly to himself. Alanna makes an annoyed sound as Adam pulls up the schematic.

“There’s scorching along the exterior shell in the fourth quadrant. If you look at the internal nano-circuit, that damage fried half the components in that region. I don’t know how that translates to you being brought here, but it’s a miracle that it even worked in the first place.” She explains and Adam contemplates for a moment.

“Wait, there wouldn’t happen to be any damage on the shield projection mechanism, would there?” He asks coyly.

“Yeah there’s a lot…wait…what is it? What’d you do?” She accuses.

Adam reluctantly explains, “I mayyyy have used the shield as a barrier to protect Seg from an explosion.” He admits.

“You _WHAT_?” Alanna cries, and Adam flinches. “And you’re surprised that it’s broken? What is wrong with you!” She drags her palms across her face in annoyance. He opens his mouth but she throws her hand up to silence him.

“Don’t. I don’t even want to hear it.” She composes herself. “You’re going to need the right equipment to repair this. Or, if you could get access to a transport pad, I could do it for you.”

“I’ll see if Gar has one, I know the bigger ones are rare, but he may be able to bring a smaller model since all we need to move is the zeta.” She nods at his answer.

“Well, I’m useless in the meantime so.” He spins around once he’s sent Gar a request for a mini tele-pad. At the lack of something to occupy him, Adam is reminded of Seg.

He walks over to his friend, who is dutifully observing a man narrate the behaviors of an arctic fox.

“We enjoying the natural world?” Adam asks. Seg looks up at him, eyes practically sparkling.

“Adam, these creatures on your planet are spectacular. They literally dive _headfirst_ into snow in order to catch their prey.” He points at the screen, which showcases a fluffy white fox trotting along a snow covered mountain.

“They can hone in on your planet’s magnetic field just through concentration and they use it to catch other small animals.” Seg’s absolute delight about learning of arctic foxes is so endearing Adam can’t help but snort. He pats his friend on the shoulder.

“Alright man, maybe that’s enough TV for now.” He shuts it off and Seg leans back on the couch, hiding a pout.

“You’re deflecting. It’s obvious.” He remarks pointedly. Seg looks down, losing his earlier wonderment.

“It’s all just…quite a lot. As you can guess.” He stammers. Adam nods in agreement.

“Well at least the superpowers are cool right?” Adam tries to inject humor back into the situation, which works this time, based on the way Seg’s face lights up.

“Right, about that. I think…I think I saw your housemates. I don’t really know what happened, one second I was watching the…white puffy thing jump into snow, the next I was watching people walk around in a room like this.” He gestures to the apartment.

“I only realized it was them,” he points to the wall behind the TV, “when one of them dropped something and I could hear the sound coming from that direction.” Seg finishes, and Adam crosses his arms.

“Two in one, that’s impressive.” Seg cocks his head in confusion. “X-ray vision and super hearing. You saw through the wall and heard the sound from their apartment. Classic Kryptonian superpowers.” Adam explains, and Seg stands up.

“Honestly?” He asks and Adam nods in reassurance.

“All the Supers’ got ‘em. That’s not it though.” He waggles his eyebrows at a bewildered Seg.

After a moment of thought, he instructs Seg. “Run to the end of the hallway.” He points towards the bathroom and bedroom corridor. Seg hesitates, but Adam shoves him from behind.

“Do itttt. Coward.” He urges. Seg holds his head in confidence, and readies himself. He takes a step and….

Jogs past the kitchen and down the hallway. Normally.

Seg spins around and lifts his arms to ask ‘what the hell?’. Adam is unbothered, his face still.

“Try again.” He asserts, and Seg rolls his eyes. He takes a bored step forward and–

And is suddenly standing right in front of Adam.

Said Earth man stumbles backwards, and loose papers fly everywhere as if a gust tore through the room. Adam orients himself and a grin crawls across his face.

“What.” Seg chokes out, eyes darting around in confusion, hands out to stabilize himself as if he were on a tightrope.

“Super speed man. Go on. Try again.” Adam chuckles and this time Seg is prepared to instantly run to the other side of the room. He almost smacks into the wall, but cheers when he doesn’t.

“This is incredible!” He can’t help the rising joy in his gut, as Adam claps in encouragement.

They act like children for the next hour, Seg wide-eyed and Adam smug as all hell. Seg wears down the carpet in the hallway from how much he goes back and forth at super speed. Adam then urges him to eavesdrop on people around them but they quickly abandon that idea when all Seg hears is the dog barking across the hall.

Adam then introduces the invulnerability, which Seg thinks is by far the lamest (“you’re literally bulletproof” “I don’t know what that means” “It’s awesome” “It’s boring”). Seg changes his mind when Adam abruptly stands and drives the broken crowbar into Seg’s arm. The metal shatters on impact, brittle from earlier and Seg relents, admitting it is a little cool. The next is the heat vision, which after much concentration and bickering, is only tried once following a new blemish in Adam’s wall. Alanna agrees with that decision.

“I saved the best for last.” Adam says from his position on the couch. He doesn’t hide the sly smile creeping at his lips.

“More? Really?” Seg asks as he absentmindedly bends and unbends the half crowbar from earlier.

“No.” They’re interrupted by a firm voice across the room.

“Oh come on, _why_.” Adam grumbles.

“You know exactly why. You’re gonna try to throw him off the roof of this building and it won’t work and he’ll splat out across the ground.” Alanna crosses her arms.

“That won’t happen, and even if it does he’ll be fine.” He brushes her off. Seg is looking back and forth between Adam and the holo, brows furrowed so close Adam thinks they might get stuck together.

“Why exactly will we be throwing me off a roof?” He questions, leaning forward. Alanna shakes her head out of exasperation.

“You can fly.”

“……….I can what?”

“Fly.”

“What now?”

“Seg. **You**. **Can**. **Fly**. You know, up in the air? Like a bird? With wings? But you don’t have wings, you kinda just…” Adam trails off as he lifts his fist into the air to demonstrate.

Seg blinks rapidly, and is about to barrage the two of them with questions before a loud knock on the door instantly draws everyone’s attention.

Adam answers the door to find Gar standing patiently, hefting a large black duffel over his shoulder. The man’s face lights up as he thuds the bag down on the floor and walks in to pull Adam into a bear hug. The blonde man reciprocates.

“Adam, it’s so good to see you!”

“Yeah man, you too.” He echoes. Gar leaves the embrace and picks up his bag.

“Got your miniature transport pad right here. Thank god for Wally right?” He mentions, and Adam chuckles in response.

“God, this place is dreary as ever.” He remarks as he walks in. When he spots Seg he acknowledges him by sticking out his hand for a handshake. Seg, confusedly, copies him.

“Hey man, I’m Gar.” He introduces. Seg stares back for a second too long.

“You’re green.” He states and Gar huffs out a laugh.

“Wow really? I didn’t realize.” He says sarcastically, but not mean-spiritedly.

“Sorry, is that a normal thing for this planet?” He directs his question at Adam, who shakes his head quickly.

“No he’s a metahuman. Superpowers.” He answers. Gar now looks confused, as he points at Seg and asks.

“Is he your Kryptonian?”

“Mhmm. This is Seg.” Adam gestures. Seg gives a silent wave, and they all stand in awkward silence for a moment.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Gar drags out his syllables, obviously able to read the room.

“He’s Clark’s grandfather.” Alanna answers from the desk. Gar whips his head around.

“Wait what?”

“Adam brought him here from the past. Time traveled using tech he _stole_ from my father and I. I’m Alanna, by the way.” She introduces, not looking away from her screen. Gar turns his mouth into a confused “o” shape, as he looks to Adam for an explanation.

“Remember I told you I fell off Earth? Got beamed to her planet. Made some friends, looked into the timeline, found that there was an anomaly and went back to try and fix it. Accidentally brought him back here in the process.” Gar nods as Adam summarizes.

“Well. Doesn’t sound crazier then the shit the Titans deal with, so okay. You’re Clark’s grandfather. That’s cool.” He says matter-of-factly. Seg nods.

“Sorry, Gar right? Could you connect that transport disk into Adam’s set up so I can start making some headway fixing the device that brought him here?” Alanna requests from her spot on the desk.

“Got it.” Gar sets up the tele-pad and after finicking with the broadcast signal, Adam is able to teleport the damaged zeta beam directly to Rann. Gar and Seg have small talk in the background.

“So you know Adam well?” Seg wonders, and Gar responds by tilting his hand back and forth.

“A bit, we were best buds in college before he dropped out. He got to know me and my team, and sorta became a honorary member for a while. Then he up and disappears.”

“I was _literally_ trapped on an alien planet.” Adam defends.

“Uh-huh, so when you undisappear, you buy a place, put me down as your backup contact, and then disappear _again_.” Gar blames.

“I was on _another_ alien planet but 200 years in the past! When do I get a break?” Gar shakes his head.

“Excuses.” He teases.

“Do you happen to know why this weirdo doesn’t have anything in his kitchen cabinets?” Seg asks. Adam scoffs.

“Why are you saying that again, it’s not true; why would my cabinets be empty?” He rambles. Gar suddenly looks guilty.

“Well….” Gar trails off.

“What? Why do you look so ashamed?” Adam grills.

“Look man, you were gone for six months, and I already covered one three-month payment because I thought, hey, he might just be in a rough spot and this place is dirt cheap, not a big deal, whatever. But then the next three-month payment started coming up and I realized you were _gone_ gone, and well….I figured you wouldn’t miss it if you weren’t here, right?” Gar finishes justifying and Adam’s mouth hangs open.

“You _sold_ my STUFF?!” Adam bellows as Gar laughs.

“I only started about two weeks ago! Calm down, not that much is gone.” Adam races to his kitchen while Gar is talking. He whips open the cabinet doors and his eyes go wide.

“You sold all my cups and plates! Jesus Gar, _a_ _ll of them._ How much did you even get?” He asks incredulously. Gar shrugs.

“I dunno, like 100 bucks.” Adam stalks back over to his desk.

“You sold my mouse pad! And all my desk junk!” He accuses.

“I also sold your blinds and night table.” He added, and smoke starts coming out of Adam’s ears. Gar stifles a laugh.

“The TV was next on my list.” He says jokingly, and Adam swears under his breath, making quiet threats to Gar as he gets back to work on his computer. Seg chuckles at his friend. 

Gar looks Seg up and down. “Has he told you about the superpowers yet?” Gar asks. Seg nods aggressively.

“Yes. Never expected there to be so many. Actually, speaking of which Adam, could we go back to the fact that I can apparently _fly_ on this planet?” He emphasizes. Gar speaks for Adam.

“Oh hell yeah, it’s the coolest thing. Supersonic flight has gotta be the best ability in the Kryptonian arsenal.” Gar adds.

“He wants to throw me off a roof.” Seg yells.

“Well how else are you gonna learn?” Gar questions and Seg merely rolls his eyes.

“Okay that’s all set up and done.” He spins his chair around to his friends. “You guys wanna get some lunch?”

* * *

“So you decided that the best course of action after being transported to another planet is to make nice with some folks, steal their prized piece of technology and send yourself back home so you can investigate abnormalities in the time continuum?” Gar grills Adam on the three year period since they’ve seen each other. They’re currently walking through the streets of Manhattan headed towards one of Adam’s favorite diners.

“I mean, yeah. It got kinda…awkward on Rann so I bailed.” He says, shoving his hands into his pockets. Seg quickly comes to a realization.

“Oh Rao, you slept with Alanna didn’t you?” He asks, and Adam’s face goes bright red, as Gar and Seg laugh up a storm.

“So Gar, how goes things at Titans Tower?” Adam not-so-subtly changes the subject, clearing his throat after he speaks. Gar calms himself down before answering.

“The team’s changed a lot since you last saw us. Vic’s national now, he’s buddying with the big names for work; Kory went home for diplomatic reasons, and we’ve been training these two new kids from Gotham so it’s…interesting to say the least.” Gar finishes.

“Dick’s engaged, that’s another thing.” He adds after a pause.

“What? That’s awesome, when you see him next, tell him congratulations.” Adam nudges.

“Seg, how are you enjoying life on Earth so far?” Gar leans forward to talk to Seg who’s on the opposite side of Adam.

“Well, considering I’m stuck light years _and_ centuries from my home, things aren’t the worst. It’s actually quite nice here, the natural life on this planet is fascinating. And I absolutely love those….bloody, what are they called?” He asks Adam.

“Foxes.”

“ _Foxes_ , yes, they’re magnificent.” Gar laughs under his breath.

“We’re about to show you another ‘magnificent’ part of life on Earth my friend. Nostalgic, hearty, diner food, it’s practically addicting. And I’m almost not exaggerating.” Adam declares. Seg smiles, but quickly loses focus of what Adam and Gar are going on about as they round a corner.

To his left he sees a stone courtyard in front of a skyscraper. There are an array of small steps leading up to glass doors, and people flutter about, some sitting on benches littered around the area. But what catches Seg’s eye isn’t the decor, but rather the metal statue situated smack in the middle of the wide open area.

It depicts a chiseled, handsome man, an arm out in front of him, one foot suspended in air, the other planted on the base. The metal is carved to show a cape frozen behind him, and his face is determined, looking upwards. He walks up to it, paying no attention to the plaque at the base instead enamored with the figure itself. Seg could take all these clues to help him deduce just who this statue is meant to be; or he could simply look downwards and read the name written out on the sign. However, he doesn’t need to do any of these things, because one aspect makes it plainly obvious.

The House of El symbol drawn across the man’s chest.

The air leaves his body, and the words _grandson_ repeat over and over in his head. He finally tears his eyes away from the symbol and reads the plaque.

“ _Superman. Hero of Metropolis, Man of Steel, honored here for the lives he saved in the 2015 Darkseid attacks_.”

Seg hasn’t even realized that Adam and Gar are now standing on either side of him. He inhales shakily.

“I was going to ask. But I don’t think I need to.” Seg admits, as Adam eyes him.

“He has the House of El insignia on his chest.” He marvels, mostly to himself. Adam responds regardless.

“Superman’s whole deal is that he stands for hope. Only fitting he has the kryptonian symbol for it represent him on Earth.” Seg half smiles, looking back up at the statue, a mix of emotions flowing through his head.

“He really is as amazing as you say. I kind of thought you were overplaying it.” He divulges. Adam scoffs.

“If anything I was underplaying it. Come on. Let’s go get some food.” Adam lures him away with the promise of lunch, Seg’s gaze lingering on the statue for a moment longer.

Half an hour later, they’re mid-meal in aforementioned diner. Adam ordered for Seg, who, expectedly, had absolutely no clue what anything on the menu was. The Kryptonian seems satisfied with whatever he’s eating, so Adam counts that as a mini-win in his book.

Adam is halfway through a rant about Superman’s best moments when he’s cut off suddenly by the sound of glass shattering. People around them scream, and a very clear blaster gun fires a shot through the doors. There's shouting as chaos takes over the diner, and all three of them stand, ready to run.

He watches as three bipedal, scaly creatures enter through the broken glass doors; Two of them have blaster guns out, surveying the area. Their table is by the back of the restaurant so Adam’s first instinct is to run out the back through the kitchen. He squints at the aliens for a second and realizes they all have twin horns protruding upwards, as well as long narrow faces. His stomach drops. _Shit._

“What in Rao’s name are those things?” Seg shouts.

“They’re Kroloteans, longtime enemies of Rann, but I have _no_ idea what they’re doing on Earth.” Adam yells over the screaming, and watches as one of the aliens shoots towards an overhead light, showering the ground with sparks.

“The League was dealing with a small scale invasion a few months ago, but I thought they were all run out of the galaxy by now!” Gar adds to their discussion.

“What do they want with us?” Seg asks.

“How do you know they’re after us?” Adam responds quickly, but has his own question answered when a blaster shot flies right past his head. He sees all three of them growling at their group, and he reflexively starts backing up.

“Okay, stupid question.” He quips, as the aliens charge.

“I’ll buy you guys some time! Run!” Gar steps forward to intersect the Krolotean’s attack path. He rips off his jacket, and Adam watches as he falls forward and shape shifts into a green tinted gorilla. He can practically hear Seg’s jaw drop on the floor.

“Run now, fanboy later!” He grabs his friend by the wrist and sees Gar smack a creature into the wall with a roar.

“That’s….that’s so amazing!” Seg stutters out as they bolt through the kitchen and whip open a door into a back alleyway.

They stand still for a moment, panting heavily, adrenaline running high. Adam can hear bangs and crashes and the sound of a blaster being fired rapidly. Seg is twitching behind him.

“Is he going to be okay?” The kryptonian asks. They both jump when the door swings open to reveal a slender green cheetah holding Gar’s jacket in its mouth.

Gar shifts back into human, clearly bruised and favoring his right leg. He slips his jacket on as he speaks.

“Time to run.” He orders, right as a blaster shot impacts with the door, splintering bits of wood everywhere.

They take off towards the street to try and get some distance from the aliens. However as they turn the corner, Adam feels a rush of pain fly through his nose. He falls to the ground clutching his face and looks up to realize he was just jammed with the butt of a gun. He turns and sees the three Kroloteans from earlier come out of the restaurant, putting it together that the group which cut them off are different ones. They’re surrounded.

_Very bad._

He groans and tries to stand, vision spinning from the pain. While desperately trying to come up with a way out of this situation, he notices something significant. Seg is holding himself very stiff, feet planted and fists clenched as if he’s about to do something.

Something very, very stupid.

“Seg.” Adam warns as Gar helps him off the ground. The Kroloteans hiss, and speak in their language as if deciding what to do with them.

“Don’t. Don’t do it.” He whispers through shut teeth. His friend glances at him sideways.

“You don’t know what you’re doing.” Adam points out. Seg nervously inhales.

“Yeah,” Seg responds, as one of the Kroloteans points to Gar and Adam. “They don’t know that.” He finishes. Adam prepares himself, and hopes to all hell Seg doesn’t get himself killed.

On cue, Seg speeds towards the three aliens behind them, grabbing two by the throat. He slams both against a brick wall, smacking their heads hard to knock them out. The four from the sidewalk start screeching, and Adam watches as the one closest to him raises a blaster. He stiffens, but is taken aback by Seg suddenly appearing between the gun and Adam. The Kryptonian directs the gun upward and the laser flies into the air.

He pulls the gun from the Krolotean’s claws, and punches it across the face. The alien falls to the ground, but Seg is caught off guard by one of the other ones using the blaster as a club on the back of his head. Seg goes down _hard_ and Adam silently freaks out over whether he’s okay or not.

The four remaining all bunch together, one shielding the rest, still blocking their exit out to the street. Seg props himself up and grips the back of his head in pain. Not a man of steel yet–he doesn’t have enough exposure to the sun’s radiation.

The alien in front of the group gutturally attempts to speak english. “Kryptoniannnn. We have no quarrel with youuuu.” He sneers.

“All we want is the zeta beam devicccccce.” He says, blaster still poised at Adam’s chest. At his demand, Gar looks at him questioningly, Seg still trying to stand up.

“Oh. Well. Sorry. You can’t have it.” He says matter-of-factly. The Krolotean who spoke snarls.

“It wasn’t a requesttttt.” He lifts the blaster towards Adam’s head, and the blonde man does his best to hold a straight face.

The world suddenly shakes, as if rocked by a small earthquake. Adam realizes something is now standing between him and the gun aimed at him, blocking out the sun to leave Adam in shadow. He hears shrieks and alien cries, and the rapid stomping of frightened Kroloteans running away. Adam sees a flash of bright red and smiles.

Seg still can’t see straight. His world is turning over and over, and he feels as if he’s about to sink into the ground and be swallowed up. His vision spins and he shuts his eyes to focus. The vertigo dissipates a bit, and when he opens his eyes, he sees a blurry outstretched hand. Seg grasps on and slowly pulls himself up.

He shakes his head, looking at the ground for a second to get oriented. Once he’s focused, Seg looks up at the man who helped him, only to see the House of El symbol staring him in the face.

 ** _Oh_**.

Standing right in front of him, hand braced on Seg’s shoulder to keep him upright, is definitely, most certainly Superman. Clark. Kal-El. _His grandson._ His actual, in the flesh, superhero grandson is softly smiling at him blissfully unaware of Seg’s mental freakout. Seg can’t help but stumble back in shock as if the vertigo from earlier has returned.

Clark looks worried at his stature. “Are you alright?” He asks, and Seg can’t bring himself to answer. He opens his mouth to try and force words out but instead holds a dumbfounded gaze. 

“Hi Superman.” Seg just now processes that Adam is still here, standing behind Clark waving awkwardly. The Kryptonian turns to acknowledge him, and Seg catches Gar giving a small wave as well.

“We need to talk.”

* * *

“Adam what exactly is this about? J’onn told me it was urgent, but I doubt you called me here to help with some Krolotean strays.” Clark questions impatiently. They’ve returned to Adam’s apartment, the two humans sprawled out on his grungy couch; Gar nurses his leg and Adam is simply exhausted from the adrenaline rush. Clark paces around the small space and Seg is hiding himself in the opposite corner, having not spoken a word the whole way back.

“No no, of course not–”

“What exactly are they doing here?” Gar interjects.

“Ah, well, we knew there was still a small cell of them somewhere on the continent based on trace bio-signatures, but they must’ve known we were looking because they dropped off of every radar we checked. Even Barry had nothing but dead ends after searching the half the leads we came up with.” Clark seems frustrated, but sighs to calm himself.

“I sent word back to base that there was a sighting in New York; maybe they’ll be able to narrow something down.” He shrugs, then directs his attention back to Adam.

“You still haven’t answered me yet.” Clark points out. Adam’s face flushes and he struggles to get out words.

“Well, you see, it’s kind of a long and….complicated story….” Adam desperately looks to Seg and Gar for help. The former dodges eye contact, staring at the ground arms crossed as if in deep thought. Gar puts his hands up and shakes his head.

“All you man.” He spits out. Adam glares, but cedes, swallowing his nervousness.

“So–”

“ADAM!” A shrill rings out through the apartment and Adam almost jumps out of his skin. Alanna’s holo appears on her platform.

“I think I _finally_ figured out the issue with….oh. Clark.” Her demeanor quickly shifts. “You actually showed up. I was not expecting you to listen to this moron.”

“Hey!”

“Hello Alanna, it’s good to see you.” Clark greets, keeping his face neutral at her insults (though Adam just _knows_ he’s laughing on the inside).

“Adam was just about to explain why exactly I’m here.” Clark crosses his arms, cape swaying slightly. At the many interruptions, Adam’s thought process for calmly explaining the situation to Clark has been blown out the window, only guilt and awkwardness remaining. He opens and closes his mouth like a fish for an uncomfortably long time, before he hears a grumble from across of the room.

“Adam you’re embarrassing sometimes,” Seg mutters under his breath as he steps forward. “It’s because of me.” Clark looks at Seg confused, as if he doesn’t believe what he says.

“There’s no emergency, nothing is urgent, at least……not in the way you think.” Seg sighs deeply, steadying himself.

“He called you here to meet me.” Seg says slowly.

“And why would I need to speak with you?” Clark questions, losing any sense of disbelief and doubt, replacing it with curiosity.

“Because. I’m your grandfather.” Seg reveals with as much strength as he can muster.

Although confused at first, Seg watches as realization crawls across Clark’s face. He stares him down unblinking, and almost collapses; he barely manages to brace himself on Adam’s desk chair behind him. Seg’s whole body is so tense it hurts, the corner of his eyes stinging with tears.

“I knew I recognized you.” Clark breathes out. “You seemed so _familiar_ and I couldn’t put my finger on…why.” Seg presses his lips into a minuscule smile, Clark’s face remaining frozen in one of shock. Seg shoots Adam a glance, and he returns with a little nod. The kryptonian gestures to the balcony with his head, and Clark follows him out, stumbling slightly over his own feet.

Seg closes the door as soon as Clark steps through. The caped hero is leaning against the rail, looking out over the street below them.

Seg starts. “Look, I know this must be a lot–” he cuts himself off at Clark chuckling.

“It really isn’t. That’s the irony.” He says with a smile, eyes glistening wet.

“Meeting other Kryptonians who’ve supposedly been long dead has happened…more often than you think.” Clark looks bemused by his own words, and Seg laughs darkly; he doesn’t miss the reference to their extinct race.

“What _does_ baffle me is…how you’re so young.” Clark emphasizes, turning towards Seg. The latter crosses his arms.

“Time travel.” Clark nods at his response, not put off at all. “Adam brought me here accidentally from about 200 years ago.” His grandson’s face falls.

“200 years…then you must…you must know about….” he trails off.

“About Krypton being destroyed? Yeah. He told me.” Seg pauses for a second, before he perks back up.

“Wait, does that mean you didn’t know? That Adam traveled back?” Clark shakes his head.

“Really? You were _all_ he talked about when I first met him! Literally, **_all_** _._ ” Seg stresses, and Clark looks dubious.

“What?? Noooo. I mean, Adam’s a bit of a dork but he’s not–”

“Obsessed? Fixated? Unhealthily preoccupied? Trust me. He is.” Seg reassures, and they both laugh.

“Adam said he came back to try and save you, to try and stop Krypton from being destroyed too early.” Seg says, and Clark clenches his jaw. “He thought the enemy was Brainiac…but it was Zod.” He finishes, and the other man stands up straight.

“That’s where he escaped to. I trapped him in the phantom zone but he broke out somehow. He’d run to the past.” Clark speaks to himself as if all the pieces of a puzzle were falling together. Seg breaks his concentration by continuing.

“Adam and I were on our way back to Krypton to stop him, but the zeta malfunctioned and now we’re here. Alanna’s been working on fixing it.” Clark nods while staring at Seg. After a moment, he furrows his brows, and Clark blinks to break his trance.

“Sorry, I’m staring, I just…you sound so much like she described you. Humorous. Determined.”

“Like who described?” Seg asks. Clark opens his mouth, but cuts himself off to consider.

“Am I allowed to tell you?” He speculates, and Seg raises an eyebrow.

“I think we abandoned timeline continuity a long time ago.” Clark makes a face as if to admit 'yeah, you’re right' _._

“Kara told me. Supergirl.” He makes eye contact with Seg. “My cousin.” At that, Seg’s face drops into surprise.

“Cousin? You just said cousin? You have…a cousin.” He repeats. “……I have a granddaughter??” Seg smacks his hands over his mouth and suppresses the urge to cheer loudly.

“I’d bring her here now, but she’s off world dealing with a civil war on Venturi. Out of range.” Seg is now pacing back and forth from happiness, hands on top of his head. He takes a deep breath.

“And she’s a hero, like you?” Seg queries.

“Mhmm.” Clark nods, the edges of his lips quirked upwards ever so slightly.

“Wow.” Seg says in wonderment. He thinks to himself for a moment before carrying on.

“When I was a kid, my grandfather, Val, was killed. My family and I were stripped of our rank, the House of El was all but lost.” He explains to an attentive Clark.

“But then, Adam, he came and he told me about you and my son and my future and _your_ future on this planet. And when he talked about it, it was all abstract, something to come, a possible future.” He looks at Clark. “An idea.” Seg doesn’t stop looking as he speaks.

“But now I’m seeing you, actually _seeing_ you and hearing about all the things you’ve done and…you’re everything I ever could’ve hoped for.” He can’t help the tears which fall down his cheeks, Clark mirroring him. “I see you and I know in my heart that even if Krypton doesn’t survive, that the House of El will. Through you Kal-El.” Seg beams, and Clark nods, wiping away the water on his own face.

“And apparently through my granddaughter as well, if she’s anything like you.” Seg laughs though his tears, before coming to yet another realization.

“Oh Rao. That means I’m going to have another kid!” He reels, slapping his forehead. Clark grins brighter than the sun.

“I’m so glad I got to meet you.” He chokes out, pulling Seg into a hug. Seg squeezes hard in return.

“And I you,” He pulls back, leaving a hand on Clark’s shoulder. “Superman.”

* * *

Adam’s head is pounding.

Him and Alanna have been staring at their screens for almost two hours now, hard at work on repairing the zeta. Alanna works from her end on mechanical and hardware, while he combs through pages and pages of nano scans to try and pinpoint exactly _what_ needs to be fixed, _where_ to fix it and how to go about fixing it without causing more damage.

By this point, they’ve narrowed down the issue to damage on part of the circuitry responsible for sequencing destination input. The internal calibration readings from Rann were all kind of wack; basically the zeta’s compass was pointing the wrong way. Since then, they’ve just been doing their respective jobs; he leans back and shuts his eyes to try and force away some of his weariness.

Adam groans loudly as he arches his back.

“Getting tired?” Alanna question slyly. He scoffs.

“I apologize for my weak human eyes, we’re not equipped to stare at intricate blueprints for hours on end.”

“And you’re saying I am?” She accuses.

“No one is, you’re just less audible with your pain.” He remarks. There’s a beat, and Adam could cut the awkward tension with a butterknife. Both of then have been dancing around what to talk about, and he keeps chickening out of asking her personal questions; the way she shut down when he mentioned Sardath earlier still sticks in his mind.

The past is rife with…unhappy events and Adam really doesn’t want to overstep any boundaries by bringing up something that will make her uncomfortable. He sighs to himself and longs for the days when they were close enough to discuss whatever they wanted, unbothered by baggage Adam wished they could get over.

“Have you heard from Gar yet?” Alanna asks, clearing her throat. Gar went back to his place, which has a direct outpost to the league. With Clark kind of distracted at the moment, Adam figured it’d be a good plan for him to check in with their progress on the Kroloteans.

“No, not yet. It was just a check in, he should be back soon.” Adam cracks his neck, Alanna visibly flinching at the noises. He chortles, and she turns back to her work.

Procrastinating, Adam leans back to get a better look at Clark and Seg on the balcony. They appear to be deep in conversation, and he doesn’t miss the tear stains on both their faces.

“I’m glad he gets to meet him.” Adam remarks. Alanna looks up to see where his attention is.

“Of course, Clark's probably thrilled to meet another member of his family.” Alanna says, as if it were obvious. Adam huffs out a laugh and shakes his head.

“No not Clark. Well, yes, that, but I meant Seg.” Alanna looks confused at his response, and he bites his lip slightly.

“Convincing Seg to fight for a future he’ll never see hasn’t been easy. And I don’t blame him, if someone told me my world needed to explode so my grandson _might_ go on to be the greatest hero in the universe, I’d probably handcuff them too.” He explains, and Alanna raises her eyebrows at that comment.

“At least now, he’ll know why I care so much.” He studies them. “He gets to see the future for himself. The world need Superman. And Superman needs Seg.” Adam’s eyes don’t leave the Kryptonians.

“Clark isn’t the only one who ‘needs’ Seg, as you say.” Adam whips around, irked, as Alanna continues. “Oh come on, you’re friends with him, it’s obvious. Seg isn’t just part of your mission anymore, Adam, and if you try to deny it, I’ll see right through you. So don’t.” She points a holo finger at him, and he doesn’t miss the irony of a hologram talking about being see-through.

He ignores that bit of context and sighs.

“I’ve saved his life. And he’s saved mine. It’s gonna be hard once the mission is over, to leave him on a doomed planet.” He hangs his head.

“Adam, you know–”

“Yes Alanna, I’m well aware about preserving the timeline, blah blah, I don’t need to be reminded. It doesn’t make it any easier.” He insists, and Alanna clearly pities him. “He’s my friend, like you said. And he’s going to _die_ along with the rest of the Kryptonians. That’s not something I can accept easily.” He crosses his arms and avoids eye contact. Adam waits for a response, but Alanna seems to be considering her words. He forces back the sting in his eyes, and after thirty or so seconds, she speaks.

“There’s an old Rannian legend,” She starts. “About a king who had to sacrifice his family to the gods in order protect the lives of the people in his city. Some ancient responsibility only held by every tenth king or something.” Adam blinks, wondering where the hell this is going.

“It was tragic and heartbreaking, and for the longest time he regretted it.” He doesn’t miss the obvious parallel she’s making. “But after years of sorrow, the gods rewarded him by resurrecting those he’d lost, from even before the sacrifice.” Adam looks at her funny.

“I never pegged you as a type to believe in legends, Ms. Alanna the scientist.” He says mockingly, and Alanna rolls her eyes.

“Myths aren’t meant to be treated as history, they’re meant to teach us lessons.” She sighs. 

“Adam, sometimes the hardest thing, and the right thing are one in the same. It may be difficult now. But I promise you, you’ll find the good in your decision eventually.” She gives him a soft smile, and he returns it knowingly, rolling her legend over in his mind.

“God, when did you start giving pep talks?” He adds after a moment, attempting to raise the spirit.

“GUYS!” Gar bursts into the room, slamming the door open so hard the impact dents the wall. Adam stands abruptly and is about to start railing on his friend for the damage; he cuts himself off at Seg and Clark entering, presumably noticing the noise. Gar is panting, and he holds up a finger to signify 'gimme a minute'.

“Barbara and the others found the remaining Kroloteans base of operations. They’re in a rundown hydroelectric facility out in the woods upstate.” He informs once he catches his breath.

“She was gonna send backup, but I told her we can handle this.” He pauses. “We _can_ handle this, right?” He asks, looking at Clark, who turns to Seg.

“We could probably handle it better if there were three instead of two of us.” Clark baits. Seg looks confused for a second, before raising his eyebrows.

“Seriously? I barely know how to use these powers.” He exclaims, and Clark tips his head back and forth as if to consider it.

“I think you’ll get the hang of it.” He insists confidently. Seg turns to Adam as if asking permission, and he gives him a reluctant thumbs up.

“Okay then.” Seg declares exasperatedly. “Let’s do this.”

* * *

“Are you sure about this?” Clark asks, the concerned tone not lost on Seg.

“Absolutely not. But I can’t think of a better way to get myself to fly than this.” Seg admits with arms crossed. He's currently being held by the back of the collar by Clark, floating about 500 feet up in the air. Seg knew they were wasting time with bickering; Gar was currently making his way to their location now, and it’d be a shame to keep him waiting.

Clark snorts at Seg’s comment. “Okay. But if you get less than thirty feet…”He warns.

“Then I certainly hope you’ll catch me.” Seg blurts matter-of-factly. They look at each other briefly, and Seg nods quickly and smiles, reassuring his grandson. Clark still bites his lip but returns his look of acknowledgment.

“Okay. I’ll count to three.” Seg announces, before taking a deep breath.

“One….two….th–” He can’t get the last number out before Clark lets go of his shirt, and the first thing Seg thinks is ‘you bloody prick’.

He screams, obviously, as he hurtles down towards the street. Seg wills his body to listen to the intense fear seizing his heart, urging himself to fly, _fly god dammit_ or your poor grandson will have to catch you. He squeezes his eyes shut, stops screaming, and focuses. He focuses with every fiber of his being, letting his mind clear, calming himself in the process. _Deep breath, Seg._

After a few seconds longer than expected, Seg processes the fact that no, he hasn’t fallen flat on the ground, and no he hasn’t felt any arms wrap around his torso, shamefully bringing him to safety. Without either of those things, it can only mean one thing.

Seg opens his eyes to see himself floating mid air, about ten feet off the ground. He can’t help his own incredulity, as he lets a whisper escape his throat.

“Awesome.” He says to no one. Clark flies down next to him, joining him with a wide grin. “Come on, we have some strays to take care of.” Seg orients himself, and takes off after Clark, slipping into the motion as if he’s done it his whole life.

The whole trip feels like a blur. Seg barely even remembers soaring through the sky before he finds himself stumbling forward on solid ground. He almost falls on his face, but quick reflexes help him keep his feet planted. Good for his ego too, as Gar stands in front of the Kryptonians smirking, clearly waiting for the opportunity to butt in with a witty remark.

Seg grins smugly, teasing the metahuman over robbing him the chance to quip. Gar snorts, recognizing the look, and doesn’t miss a beat.

“Superman senior figured it out! Fantastic.” He jokes, and Seg groans a bit at the nickname and his defeat in their unsaid battle. He sighs and brushes it off, Clark completely unaware of the back and forth between the two.

“Ready to kick some ass?” Gar questions both of them.

“Always.” Seg replies, and they head inside through a heavy metal door, following Gar close behind.

They’re not even in the building for thirty seconds before a blaster shot whizzes past Gar’s head. They whip around to the right and Seg doesn’t even process what happens. All he does know is one minute, there’s two grimy looking Kroloteans snarling and the next, they’re unconscious on the ground, Clark standing over them. Super-speed is disorienting from the outside.

He watches as his grandson stops for a moment, and Seg realizes that he’s listening. He turns and points further down the corridor where the two guards were. Right; super-hearing. He didn’t really get that one down.

They make their way through twenty or so more creatures completely wordless. Seg finds himself relying on his strength and speed, only realizing he’s neglecting the heat vision when he sees Clark laser three guns into pieces. Oh well; strong punches will have to do.

Perhaps the most interesting was the unique ways he saw Gar use his ability. He clobbers a few as a gorilla, mauls two as a tiger, sneaks up on one as a insect before knocking him out as a normal human and, most creatively, chokes their last one out as a long, thick snake. (Seg pats himself on the back for remembering all the names of those animals; Gar gave him a crash course in his most common forms when they first entered).

“Dude.” Seg remarks, breaking their silence, when he shifts from the snake back into human. He can’t help how impressed he is. Gar shrugs slightly, clearly amused by his fascination. They step over the Krolotean and push through a pair of doors into the next room.

They enter a large hanger, empty of anything of worth save the small ship looking transport sitting off to their left. It’s green and overdeveloped, and due to the disparity between it’s look and the rest of what he’s seen in this building, not from Earth. His guess is confirmed by two more Krolotean guards coming out from behind it, hissing at them.

Reminded of Clark’s tactic, he quickly disarms the two of them with his laser vision. He worries for a beat that his aim was off, but they appear unharmed. That is, until Clark punches them to the ground when the first one starts charging. Seg scans the area and notes one remaining Krolotean standing behind a computer setup.

Said creature steps out from behind it to approach them, arms up to indicate he has no weapons pointed at them. This one is much larger than the others they’d encountered, and Seg can only assume that he’s the one running things.

Clark steps forward to talk. “On behalf of the Justice League and planet Earth, I order you and your fleet to evacuate this solar system.” He demands, and the Krolotean growls back, teeth baring.

“Kryptoniannn.” He sneers with anger. “We were tryinggggg to leave your systemmmm. But our warp device no longer functionssssss.” He clicks as he speaks, and Seg suddenly realizes.

“ _That’s_ why you were trying to take the zeta beam from Adam.” He voices. The Krolotean nods and walks forward.

“We picked up a Rannian signaturrrrrre. Knew it had to be the zetaaaaa. We were going to use it to leaveee this wretched planettttttttt.” The creature grunts out, clearly struggling to form words in english.

Clark squints, as if to tell if it was lying. He appears satisfied, based on his response.

“The League will provide you safe passage out of this sector. I’ll have a member of the Green Lantern Corps arrange it.” He promises. The Krolotean snarls, but reluctantly walks forward with a piece of equipment in hand.

“Filthy greencoatsssss.” He gives the device to Clark. “Use this to contact usssss. We’re anxious to be rid of this dismal rockkkkkk.” He insults, but Clark is unfazed. The Kryptonian gives him a quick nod, and the creature walks back to his computers.

“Well.” Seg says, as they walk out of the building. “That did not go as expected.” Clark and Gar chuckle.

“It rarely does.”

* * *

They return soon after to Adams apartment. As they fly back, Seg doesn’t miss Clark using a wrist gadget to contact someone else; presumably the heroes he promised would deal with the remaining Kroloteans. Although he’d heard Adam and Gar mention the expanse network of paragons protecting this planet, he can’t help but be a little sad he won’t get to see this ‘Justice League’ in person. He’ll instead have to rely on Adam’s tales of their endeavors and only imagine what a vast group of heroes would look like on this foreign world.

They land hard on the sidewalk in front of the apartment–Seg _doesn’t_ stumble this time, and he can’t help but feel proud. As they climb the stairs, Seg fusses with his hair in attempt to get it back to normal. Flying ruffled it all up and he caught a glimpse in the window reflection of pieces standing straight up.

He steals a glance at Clark’s hair and immediately wonders how the _hell_ it hasn’t moved an inch.

Clark foregoes knocking and they saunter into the apartment to find Adam in the exact same spot as when they left. Gar walks over to the kitchen to open the refrigerator, and Seg collapses into the couch, lolling his head back. Clark is the only one to actually check up on his friend.

“Is that this so called zeta beam?” Clark questions and Seg’s attention shoots to Adam. He stands and registers that the spherical piece of technology sitting on Adam’s desk is in fact his ticket home. Seg laughs.

“You have it back? Does that mean it’s fixed?” He asks a little too eagerly. Adam is hunched over the desk, fidgeting with a few wires that are plugged into the grooves of the zeta. He doesn’t look over as he replies to Seg.

“Just about.” He drags out. “I’m doing some final testing and employing some contingencies so we don’t run into this problem again.” He pops his neck, slowly placing another wire into the zeta.

“I already did that. He’s being obsessive.” Alanna speaks to him from her holo. “And if you keep messing with it, you’re going to break it all over again!” She calls loudly, and Adam ignores her.

“Shhhhhh! I’m just personalizing it the same way I did when I first got it. Y’know, who leaves anything on factory settings?” He argues, looking to Clark. The hero has his arms folded and seems very skeptical. Adam rolls his eyes at the lack of reaction.

“I should be done with my finicking in like five minutes Seg.” He switches from humor to sincerity. Seg half smiles in response.

“So, what actually happened with it?” Gar walks into the room, face stuffed with some type of food he must’ve gotten from Adam’s kitchen. Alanna scoffs and rolls her eyes.

“Apparently, this idiot used the zeta shield as a barrier against an _explosion_ and didn’t think there’d be any repercussions to that.” She crosses her arms. Adam peers over at her to defend himself.

“To be fair, I did use it twice after that and there were no issues whatsoever.” He points out, and Alanna puts her head in her hand to signal annoyance.

“Anyway,” She says pointedly, turning back to Gar. “The explosion disrupted the calibration, and reverted the internal orientation back to its original spacetime position. It basically obstructed the zeta’s connection to any programmed destination, and interpreted the intent to be ‘return to origin’.” Gar appears absolutely lost by her explanation, as does Clark. Alanna must’ve sensed this, sighing and continuing on. 

“Once Adam used it when it’d finished processing the new ‘instructions’, it tried to close the loop; in this case, it brought the user back to _where_ and _when_ it was first activated.” Seg hears a soft ‘Ohhhh’ from Gar’s direction and stifles a laugh. Alanna doesn’t seem to notice.

“I was able to fix it on my end. Adam stills needs to program the destination but,” She turns to Seg. “You should be able to get home now, back to the moment when you left.” He does his best to look as grateful as possible.

“Thank you Alanna. I really appreciate your help.” She raises an eyebrow smugly.

“You’re gonna need all the help you can get if you’re anywhere near this one.” She assures, jutting her thumb in Adam’s direction. He opens his mouth to retort back but she interrupts him.

“I really need to get going, I’ve been away from my research post for a while now. It was great to see you Clark and to meet you Gar.” She acknowledges the two men, before turning to Adam. “Please stay out of trouble.” She urges.

“Always do.” He jokingly gives her a thumbs up, and she rolls her eyes at him.

“Jackass.” She mutters, before leaning forward. The circular platform her hologram is on blinks, and the figure shuts off. At that, Adam pushes back from his desk, the zeta now completely disconnected from the wires.

“Welp. I guess that’s our cue to leave space man.” He says to Seg, implying that he’d finished the final touches on the zeta. The Kryptonian hesitates, before turning to Clark to say goodbye. Seg moves to speak, but Clark holds a hand up to stop him. Seg can’t help but be glad to have someone prevent him from pouring his heart out in front of his friends.

“Good luck Seg. Truly. I hope you and Adam succeed.” Clark nods. _Short and sweet._ Tears poke at the corners of his eyes, and Seg pulls him into a hug at seeing that. He whispers into his grandson’s ear.

“I’m so proud of what you’ve become. It’s all anyone could ever hope for from their progeny.” He says as wholeheartedly as possible.

Clark chuckles back. “Well they don’t call me the symbol of hope for nothing.” He says dryly, pulling his grandfather tighter.

They end their embrace with a meaningful look, and Seg walks over to stand next to Adam. Gar points at him.

“Have fun storming the castle Superman senior!” Seg looks confused, and Adam just shakes his head.

“Gar, he won’t get that.” He utters, before glancing around his apartment. “Just, please don’t sell anymore of my stuff while I’m gone?” Adam pleads.

“No promises.” Gar responds.

“God you’re the worst.” Adam grumbles, before holding up the zeta. He asks Seg with his eyes if he’s ready, to which the Kryptonian responds with a short nod. Adam activates the zeta, and the shield begins to build. Seg holds his hand up in a solemn wave to Clark, who reciprocates.

Clark whispers to himself, “Bye Grandpa.” The zeta flashes and the two of them blink out of time, leaving Clark staring at nothing but a blank wall.

* * *

Seg and Adam land hard on their stomachs. The ground is cold and unforgiving, and Adam groans from pain. Seg barely registers his own aches, as he whirls around to figure out where–and when–they landed.

“Oh god.” Adam rolls over and clutches his side, grimacing. “Did we make it?” He asks coughing.

Seg stands and looks out into the distance, and instantly recognizes Kandor. The breath is stolen from his body.

“Yeah. We’re in the outlands.” He affirms, mixed feelings of rejoice and longing crowding his head. Without the yellow sun, Seg can practically feel the power slipping out of him. Too bad, as it could really come in handy for defeating Zod. He tries not to think of his grandson as he looks to his hands, remembering how it felt under the sun.

Adam pulls himself up, panting, and notices Seg’s sour face. He puts a hand on his shoulder.

“We’re gonna do this.” He reassures.

“I know we will. There’s hope now.” He looks as Adam softly. “I’ve seen the future you’re fighting for. And I intend to keep it intact.” Seg declares.

“Good.” Adam pats him on the shoulder. “Let’s go save Krypton then.” They start their trek back to Kandor, both reinvigorated with the confidence and conviction of heroes, ready to face whatever the future will throw at them.


End file.
